


missing anxiety

by esperink



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: Accepting Anxiety, Gen, I am actually, I honestly have no clue, What-If, if i do continue this the title probably won't be relevant after a bit, or the lack of part two, the title is very subject to change, truly not knowing what to put here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 07:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 4,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21050228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esperink/pseuds/esperink
Summary: When Virgil ducked out, they weren't able to get into his room.They weren't able to get him back.





	1. prologue (probably)

**Author's Note:**

> Brain: AU where Virgil doesn’t come back in Accepting Anxiety.  
me: …why.
> 
> stuffs: Deceit, and there’s slight panic for a second? I may have missed something.

A newly formed figure stood in the middle of an empty commons room. He surveyed his surroundings, scanning the room and the things it held. He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, leaning forward to look at a picture.

Footsteps.

He straightened up, but didn’t turn around. He continued to scan the mantel in silence. The fire in the fireplace provided warmth, and that was nice.

Deceit walked into the commons room but stopped short when he saw someone standing in the middle of the room.

“Virgil?” he said, almost cautiously. He hadn’t seen the other in a few days.

The person turned around, but this was very much not Virgil. He wore a different jacket and his hair was out of his face, and there was something distinctly Not-Virgil about him. Was it the eyeshadow? Was it different? Deceit couldn’t tell in the dim light.

“Nope,” the new Side said (for this could only be a Side. Functions stayed downstairs unless invited).

“Who are you?” Deceit asked. There was the urge for fight or flight, but if he didn’t figure out who or what this was, how was he going to keep Thomas and the rest of the Mindscape safe?

“Me?” The Side raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged. “I’m Anxiety.”

Deceit shook his head slowly. Virgil was Anxiety. “You’re not…”

Anxiety smiled, but there wasn’t any joy or happiness in it. “I’m his replacement.”


	2. a few days prior...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> looks like i'm continuing this!  
can't think of any warnings, let me know if i missed anything though!

Into the unknown.

Or, at least, that’s where Logan, Roman, Patton, and Thomas thought they were going.

Thomas was missing his Anxiety, and Logan had had enough, so they had set off to find him. To find Anxiety.

Or at least, that’s what they tried to do.

Thomas had thought about what would usually make him anxious, but after a few minutes, the group was still in his living room. He glanced around. “It doesn’t look like it’s working,” Thomas said lightly.

“I don’t—” Logan said, clearly confused.

“Maybe he’ll let just one of us in?” Patton suggested. “Maybe he’s just shy.” He looked hopeful.

Logan sighed. He doubted that was the issue, since Anxiety had made his presence well-known previously. But they did need to find him. “Very well.”

“I could—” Roman started, but Logan interrupted him.

“We will send Patton,” he said. “Anxiety would probably not react well to Roman and I need to stay here to ‘keep an eye on things’.”

Roman huffed, crossing his arms. “Alright,” he agreed.

Logan turned back to Patton. “Thomas will still need to assist you reaching Anxiety’s room, but it should be relatively easier with just one of us.”

Patton nodded, and when he got the go-ahead, he sunk out.

But he’d just arrived in their commons room. He hummed in slight confusion, deciding to take a quick look around. Maybe Anxiety was just hiding somewhere?

He stepped further into the Mindscape. He walked through their side of it, uncertainly heading towards the border between theirs and the hidden Sides’ side. Anxiety’s room was around that area. Well, it _should_ be…

He had seen the door, they all had, but they’d never been able to get inside.

Patton stopped, staring. That couldn’t be right.

He rose back up in the living room. Logan looked at him expectantly.

“His room is gone,” Patton said quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr: esperinkdraws.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hm. still not quite sure where this is going. i have some ideas, but like, the end? nah.
> 
> stuffs: discussion of ducking out, slight arguing, sudden panic/anxiety (like near the end)

“What do you mean it’s gone?” Roman demanded.

“I don’t know!” Patton said, clearly distressed. “It’s not there. I looked for his room and the door was gone.”

“Wait, you didn’t just rise up in his room?” Roman asked, and Patton shook his head.

Logan was quiet, contemplative. “It is possible,” he interjected, “that he may have decided to ‘duck out’.”

“Quack,” Patton mumbled automatically.

“Ducked out?” Roman asked.

“Quack quack?”

Logan chose to ignore Patton’s random outbursts. “I wasn’t certain that we, as Sides, could do that, but there is a possibility that that is what happened. He may have decided it was more beneficial to leave.”

“Leave?” Patton continued to look distressed. “Is he ever coming back?”

Logan adjusted his tie. “If my hypothesis is correct, most likely not.”

“So he’s just gone? Just like that?” Roman asked.

“I didn’t know that was possible,” Thomas spoke up, reminding them that he was there.

“As I’ve stated, I wasn’t sure either,” Logan said. “The best thing we can do right now is monitor you, Thomas.”

So that’s what they did for a few days. They kept an eye on Thomas because Logan wasn’t too sure he wouldn’t do anything foolish, not having his Anxiety around.

It was tense in the Mindscape. None of them knew how to react to the fact that Anxiety was gone.

Patton moped. He seemed to be the most upset at Anxiety’s disappearance, and Logan figured that was reasonable, since Patton held most of the emotions and was probably the one who put the most effort into trying to include Anxiety in the group.

Roman seemed a little lost and confused. Logan supposed that made sense too, in a way. Anxiety had been a constant, someone Roman could have a verbal back-and-forth with often. Knowing that it would never happen again surely affected him.

Logan wasn’t sure what he himself felt (if he allowed himself to feel anything at all).

“Thomas’s body and mind will adapt,” he had told the other two. “As will we.”

Thomas had been watching a rerun episode of a show when something happened. He had been relatively careless, these past few days, but suddenly, he couldn’t breathe.

Panic hit him, all at once, and he doubled over to get ahold of himself. Patton, being the one who had been monitoring him at the time, called Logan and Roman up.

Once they had calmed Thomas down, Logan asked what happened.

“I don’t know,” Thomas said, shaking his head. “I was just watching TV and then suddenly I got really panicky. I just felt really…”

Thomas trailed off as his gaze traveled to the stairs.

“…Anxious.”

The Sides turned to face the stairs as Thomas had. Anxiety wasn’t there, still but the Sides shared glances.

“Is he back?” Patton asked, sounding hopeful.

“Well,” Roman said, “let’s find out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr: esperinkdraws


	4. 3. present day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and now we're back to the beginning/prologue! which was to take place a few days after the first/second chapter.  
so basically the order is essentially, chapter 1, 2, prologue, 3
> 
> also holy heck, 12 subscriptions and 6 bookmarks? sound off in the comments (if you want to, that is). I'm curious what's keeping people.
> 
> stuffs: Deceit, kind of a panic attack

His… replacement.

Virgil was gone?

He couldn’t be.

Deceit couldn’t believe it, nor did he want to.

In that moment, he wished he wasn’t Deceit so that he could think it was a cruel prank done by another hidden Side, or pretend it was a lie. But the words were spoken in truth.

“Um, are you okay?” Anxiety asked.

This wasn’t Virgil. This person was too relaxed, too laid back, too _casual_ to be the Anxiety Deceit knew.

Anxiety took a step towards him and Deceit suddenly became aware that he was bent over, and it was getting hard to breathe.

“Look, uh,” Anxiety started. “Deceit, right?” The named Side nodded. “I’m gonna need you to breathe with me, okay, Deceit? Breathe in for four seconds.”

He’d taught Virgil that technique, Deceit thought distantly.

“Hold for seven seconds.”

He just followed this new Anxiety’s instructions.

“Breathe out for – shit, I hate to leave you like this, but I’m being called.” Anxiety took a step back. “Just keep doing that, okay? 4, 7, 8.” Anxiety bit his lip but sunk out anyway.

When Anxiety rose up in front of the stairs, everyone’s eyes widened.

“Anxiety?” Patton breathed.

“The one and only,” Anxiety replied lightly.

A pause. “You’re not Anxiety…”

“Yes I am.”

Roman, for one, seemed to decide to take his words at face value. “Well, it was a cruel prank to disappear on us like that, Anxiety,” he said.

Anxiety tilted his head back in thought, almost a sarcastic motion. “Ah, you must think I’m the original.”

“The…”

“Yeah. The original. Who left a few days ago.” Anxiety raised an eyebrow.

Roman didn’t seem to want to believe that, saying, “This… this isn’t funny, Anxiety.”

“Well I’m not here to make you laugh, _Creativity_,” Anxiety shot back.

Roman took a step back, a bunch of different emotions flickering across his face. Offense and hurt and… worry?

“I do believe Anxiety is telling the truth,” Logan said, speaking up. “This is not the Anxiety we knew.”

Anxiety gestured at him. “Thank you, Logic.”

“So… he’s really gone, then?” Thomas asked quietly.

Anxiety turned to him. “Thomas,” he greeted. “Well…” He scratched his chin as if thinking. “Pretty much, yeah.”

Patton’s face fell. Anxiety frowned slightly, but then he shook his head and shrugged. He brushed off whatever he was feeling on memories he’d inherited.

“Looks like you guys are stuck with me,” Anxiety said. “Sorry about that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr!: esperinkdraws.tumblr.com


	5. 4.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stuffs: arguing, upsetness, and Roman is not very nice. food mentions, technically. naming a someone who isn’t there to say.

It was quiet, and then it wasn’t.

It took a few minutes for Logan and Anxiety to calm everyone down. Patton looked upset and Roman was glaring at Anxiety. Logan adjusted his tie, almost like he was nervous, but he’d never allow himself to get nervous of course… Thomas just looked confused and concerned.

“Well…,” Roman said. “I don’t see why we need a replacement.”

“Roman,” Patton said quietly.

“What? The old Anxiety was a creepy cookie, Patton.”

“Pump the breaks, Princey,” Thomas warned quietly.

“He- he was like an oatmeal raisin cookie that’s primarily composed of raisins – a raisin oatmeal cookie! Nobody—”

“Roman!” Patton snapped.

Roman shut his mouth, and everyone looked at Patton. The moral Side was trembling, lips pressed together and eyes shiny. Roman didn’t seem to know what to say after that.

“Look at that, you made Morality cry,” Anxiety quipped.

“I didn’t—” Roman tried to defend himself.

“Whether you meant to or not doesn’t matter,” Anxiety said with a shrug, glancing over at Patton. Then he shrugged again, turning back to Roman. “And whether you like it or not, I’m here, and I’m not leaving. If Anxiety wasn’t needed, I wouldn’t have had to replace him. I wouldn’t be here.”

“I don’t think any of us comprehended how necessary Anxiety was, or how much he factored into Thomas’s decision making,” Logan put in. “Instilled in humans, anxiety acts naturally as a fight-or-flight reflex.”

Roman started to say something, but Logan interrupted him.

“Hold on, I’m not finished,” Logan said. He brought out a graph, seemingly out of nowhere. “The relationship between anxiety and performance can be expressed on this curve, called the Yerkes-Dodson Curve. It’s named after the psychologists, R. M. Yerkes and J. D. Dodson. They—”

“Get on with it, Calculator Watch!” Roman said, and Anxiety hissed at him. Logan didn’t dignify the creative Side with a response.

“Up here,” Logan continued, gesturing with a pen, which also seemingly came out of nowhere, “is where we want to be. Without any anxiety at all, though, Thomas is not only on this laid-back side of the curve, but he is all the way down here.” Logan now gestured to the left side of the curve, at the bottom. “Which is counterproductive for anything, even following his dreams,” Logan finished, giving a pointed look to Roman.

Roman huffed, but he didn’t say anything.

“Uh, Anxiety?” Thomas said during the short silence. Anxiety looked at him. “Why… Why did the other Anxiety leave? Do you know?”

“Oh, yeah,” Anxiety said with a nod, tapping his temple as if that explained why and how he knew. “Long story short, he felt it wasn’t worth it. Unwelcome and…” Anxiety tilted his head to the side, thinking. “Well, he felt like he was holding you back.”

“The old Anxiety—”

“Virgil.”

It went silent. “What?” Thomas asked.

Anxiety tilted his head back slightly. “The old Anxiety? He had a name. Virgil.”

Thomas opened his mouth and closed it, like a fish out of water.

“Oh,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr: esperinkdraws


	6. 5.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stuffs: Roman’s kinda not nice but I think that’s it. Also maybe implying that the Others aren’t safe to be around?

“...Might we also know your name?” Patton asked in the silence that had followed.

“Look, Morality,” Anxiety said, “you’re cool and all, but I’m not gonna divulge that information to a bunch of strangers in a place I don’t feel welcome.” He glanced at Roman, as if to make a point.

Patton bit his lip and also seemed to frown at Roman, somewhat.

“Are we done here?” Anxiety asked. “Satisfied with your little reunion? I was in the middle of something when you all decided to call me here.”

“What were you in the middle of?” Thomas asked.

“And that’s a great example of information I cannot give. At least, not until you’re ready.” Anxiety shrugged with a what-can-you-do expression. “But really, are we done here?”

“I… I guess so?”

“Great. Later.” Anxiety sunk out with a salute not dissimilar to the previous Anxiety’s salute, and Thomas bit his lip at the gesture.

They all stared where Anxiety had stood by the stairs. Patton furtively crossed his arms and looked away, as did Roman. Logan and Thomas shared a look.

“I suppose I should stress the importance of getting along with this Anxiety,” Logan said to the other Sides.

“Well, he did say that he wasn’t going to leave…,” Roman mumbled, prompting a look from Patton. So Roman crossed his arms, sighing slightly. “Alright, I’ll behave.”

The group looked back at the stairs, Patton to start seeming less annoyed, and more gloomy.

With a little more aimless discussion between them, the remaining Sides sunk out, leaving Thomas with much to think about.

When Patton rose up in the commons room, he hesitated, before leaving the other two and walking towards the middle of the MindScape, to see if Anxiety’s room was still there. To see if the replacement would be residing there.

When he got there, he did see a door. He stopped in front of it. It wasn’t the same door, of course. He didn’t know why he had expected it to be. This was a different Anxiety. This wasn’t the old Anxiety- this wasn’t going to be Virgil.

Patton hugged himself before knocking on the door. Maybe he could invite him over for a movie, as a welcome to the family. Roman would just have to deal with it.

He didn’t know what had gotten into Roman. He was usually more courteous than that, wasn’t he? Even when the nicknames weren’t the nicest.

There wasn’t an answer. Patton didn’t want to bother the new kiddo, so he refrained from knocking again, but he kept hugging himself and standing outside the door. He wondered if Anxiety was there, or if he was elsewhere. He had said he’d been in the middle of something when he had been called.

Patton’s gaze traveled away from the door and towards the darker side of the MindScape. Maybe he was there. The Sides had always known that Anxiety had been a part of the lesser known section of the MindScape, but it hadn’t been brought up since the early days.

If he was over there, was he safe? Was it mean to worry about his safety there?

Patton sighed, and hugged himself once more, before turning back to head to the commons room. Maybe he’d check later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr!: esperinkdraws.tumblr.com


	7. 6.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so like, at the start of this, i was like, hey, i probably won't keep the title for the fic, but now by this time i can't imagine calling it anything else. 
> 
> anyway  
stuffs: flashbacks/memories that don’t belong to you, Sympathetic Deceit, shapeshifting (mentioned) and snakes. Slight fear and an attempt at a prank, in the memories.

Anxiety popped back up into the Others common room, glancing around for Deceit. He didn’t see him at first, so he paused and reassessed.

Oh. There.

A snake was curled up in one of the chairs. Yellow, but Anxiety wasn’t sure how long it was. But this must be Deceit. He did have scales, after all.

Well, if this was Deceit, he seemed to have calmed down, which is what Anxiety had been working on before he was called.

As he walked toward the snake he was suddenly hit with memories.

_Hands that weren’t his reaching out to poke a much younger Deceit. He turned around and the hands held out a book. Deceit lit up. “Where’d you find this?” he asked, taking the book._

_“Ask’d Logic,” a mumbled voice- Virgil’s voice- responded._

_Deceit just smiled and leafed through the book for a moment. He looked back up at Anxiety- Virgil. “Want to read with me?”_

_There was movement of a nod and Deceit gestured to follow. They sat on a small, worn-out, couch and Deceit opened the book, which happened to be about snakes._

_So they sat and read together, for who knows how long, each making sure the other had finished the page before turning it._

Anxiety let out a breath and closed his eyes to ease the sudden dizziness he felt. He took a few deep breaths and opened his eyes, moving to sit on the armrest of the chair.

_“I don’t know why you didn’t ask Creativity to help you with this,” murmured a still younger, but slightly older, Deceit._

_“Which one?” Virgil’s voice – almost challenging – answered._

_There was a short pause in the movement of the makeup brush Deceit was holding. “Alright, good point.”_

_Deceit returned the brush to Virgil’s face. He held a hand under his face – not touching – and Virgil lifted his head. Deceit hummed. “Alright,” he said. He turned the chair around, and Anxiety faced the mirror._

_Virgil gasped softly, hand reaching up to touch his face. The scales looked almost real- almost like Deceit’s. Then he grinned at the other Side, and Deceit rolled his eyes slightly, but that didn’t stop a slight blush._

Anxiety held his head.

_Anxiety felt slight fear shoot through Virgil as he stared at the small snake. But this snake was Deceit just moments before, so Virgil really had nothing to worry about. He carefully picked up the snake and draped it around his neck._

_Movement from the snake tickled and Virgil almost giggled. He left the room and looked for another Side._

_He started to approach someone, but he hesitated. The snake gently nudged him._

_“Uh, Morality,” Virgil said, “look what I found!” He plopped the snake down into Patton’s arms._

_“Huh?” Patton looked down. “Oh, a snake!” He smiled and started to stroke the little snake’s head._

_“Wait, you’re not scared of snakes?” Virgil asked._

_When Patton shook his head, there was a pop and then the moral teen had an armful of Deceit. “Where’s the fun in that?” Deceit complained._

Anxiety blinked many times to clear his vision.

Oh. The snake on the chair.

He was staring right at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr: esperinkdraws


	8. 7.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stuffs: uncertainty, guilt, crying. Mentioned past behavior of not being quite nice but nothing specific.

Patton knocked on the door, shifting from foot to foot. He glanced around himself for a moment, before deciding to knock again.

The door opened and Patton stood up straight. “Roman?” he said.

Roman stared for a moment before replying, “Patton.”

“Might I come in?”

Roman nodded, allowing Patton to walk in, and closed the door after him.

Patton paused, trying to figure out how to start this conversation.

Roman beat him to it, though, stating, “Pat, I want to… I want to apologize for my behavior earlier.”

Patton looked at him, surprised, almost. He _ had _come to talk about Roman’s behavior, but he wasn’t really expecting him to apologize so quickly. “You do?” he asked.

“I…” Roman seemed to hesitate. “I suppose I was… upset? Perhaps not upset, maybe confused… but…” Roman trailed off, becoming quiet. He started again. “I suppose I felt…”

Patton studied Roman for a moment. “Guilty?” he guessed.

Roman bit his lip. “Yes. Even before we properly met the new Anxiety I… I couldn’t help but feel it was partially my fault. And I was right.” He looked down in shame.

“Well, I don’t know about that—“ Patton started, trying to soothe his distress somewhat.

“Anxiety basically confirmed it!” Roman insisted. “And I really could have acted… better, when we met him.”

Patton couldn’t really disagree with that.

Roman kept talking. “I had this bias against the old Anxiety… since he used to be with the Others… and maybe. Maybe if I had accepted him like you had… he’d still be here? It seemed so easy when you did it.”

“Roman, I had my biases too,” Patton admitted. “It may have looked like I had just… welcomed him to the family, but there were times I didn’t trust him too. And I think we were both wrong in that sense.” Patton twisted one of the sleeves of his cat hoodie. He had been messing with it so much today that the hoodie was starting to fall from his shoulders.

Roman ran a hand through his hair with a small sigh. “But you never made it obvious, did you?” he asked.

Patton thought back to earlier in their lives. “I think,” he said, “that there are apologies owed…” He looked down. “But… I can’t apologize to Virgil. He’s gone…” Patton once again looked genuinely upset and distressed about the fact. He covered his mouth and looked up at Roman with teary eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said, and he hiccuped. “I didn’t mean to come and get emotional on you… I just wanted to see why you were acting the way you did.”

“Well, it’s the thought that counts, right?” Roman offered what he hoped was a smile. “If you are truly sorry for… how you felt about Virgil, that matters, doesn’t it?”

Patton’s hand had gone from covering his mouth to being chewed on. He tied his now fallen hoodie around his waist and forcefully pushed his hands into his pockets. “I would hope so.”

“I can’t apologize to Virgil either… but I probably need to apologize to this new Anxiety,” Roman continued. “And… Logan,” he admitted.

Patton gave a small nod. “I don’t know where Anxiety is… but Logan usually goes to the study after a meeting, I think.”

“Then to the study I’ll go!” Roman said with an echo of his usual dramatic flourish. “Would you like to accompany me?” He held out an arm.

Patton sniffled and rubbed his eyes, but he nodded. He smiled a little as he looped his arm through Roman’s. “To the study we’ll go,” he repeated quietly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come yell at me on tumblr: esperinkdraws


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's short...
> 
> stuffs: guilt, trash man mentioned by name twice, basically feeling bad

Anxiety tried to not be taken aback, seeing a snake and then suddenly in its place, Deceit. The memories he’d just experienced just showed that.

He couldn’t help but stare, with these memories in mind. Virgil and Deceit must have been really close. He felt a little guilty about taking his place, but he wasn’t sure where it came from.

Deceit was quiet. He looked curious. Contemplative. But Anxiety could recognize the sadness in his eyes.

“Hi,” Anxiety offered.

Deceit didn’t greet him, not really. Instead he said, “You’re the new Anxiety.”

Anxiety nodded slowly. “Yeah, that’s right.”

Deceit just nodded once now, turning away. He stood. “Well,” he said. “I can’t exactly say it’s nice to meet you, but… welcome, I suppose.”

“Wait,” Anxiety said when it was clear Deceit was intending to leave. Deceit stopped. “Um. Do you think you could uh… show me around a bit?”

“Show you around?”

Anxiety nodded. He wanted to know the place and to understand the memories.

“I suppose I could, but there’s not much to show.” Deceit gestured for him to follow. “Right now we’re in the commons.”

Anxiety followed Deceit as Deceit talked and showed him the few places the “Dark” side of the mindscape had.

“And this is…” They stopped at a door that looked like it belonged in a haunted castle. “The Imagination. Remus’s side.”

Anxiety tried to recall memories. “Were they close?”

Deceit looked at him. “What?”

Anxiety nodded at the door. “Him and Anxiety. Were they close?”

Deceit paused. “They were best friends, once,” he said, his voice soft and quiet.

“Does he know?”

Deceit shook his head. “No, not yet. Remus has been away in the Imagination the last few days, and you’ve only formed this morning.”

“Are you afraid of how he’ll react once he finds out?”

Deceit nodded, without speaking.

Anxiety swallowed, trying to ignore the steel of guilt he felt. “I think I’m done here,” he said. “I’m gonna… go back to my room.”

Deceit nodded, and without so much a goodbye or thanks, Anxiety sank out, to his room.

He looked at the empty walls, and tried to remember how they were when Virgil was here. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr: esperinkdraws


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stuffs: not much, just slight guilt and anxiety and nervousness

Roman had apologized to Logan, but now that he had done that, Patton insisted on the both of them coming with him to see if Anxiety was in his room by now. They agreed to accompany him, albeit a bit reluctantly, and now they stood in front of the door to Anxiety’s room.

Patton knocked on the door and they waited.

Anxiety opened the door and raised an eyebrow. “Is there something you need?” he said.

“Erm,” Roman started, hesitant. “I’m… sorry.”

“You’re sorry?”

Roman nodded, meekly. “I’m sorry for not being kind when we met.”

“Hm.” Anxiety pursed his lips in thought.

“A-and!” Patton interjected, stepping in. “We wanted to invite you to a movie night…”

“Me?” Anxiety asked. “You wanted to invite me, Anxiety, to a movie night?”

Patton almost gulped. “We want to… make you feel welcome.”

“What, are you scared I’ll leave?”

“N-not exactly, we just…”

“Feel bad,” Anxiety assumed. Nobody said anything to contradict this. Then he shrugged. “Well, if you insist.”

Patton perked up. “Really?”

“Don’t question it.”

Patton meekly nodded, and Anxiety followed them to the Commons room. They all sat down on this big couch, except for Anxiety, who sat on a nearby recliner.

“So… what’re we watching?” Anxiety asked, feeling like his name. He had absolutely no reason to trust these Sides, especially looking at Virgil’s memories.

“We usually start off with Disney,” Patton said, “but we can watch something else if you want.”

“Disney’s fine, I guess.”

“Perfect,” Roman said, picking up a small stack of movies. “Mind picking one, then?”

Anxiety sat up and shuffled through the movies. When he paused on The Black Cauldron, he noticed Logic sit up.

Anxiety looked up at him. “You like this one?” he asked.

“It’s not one we usually get to see,” Logic explained. “Roman prefers the happy fairy tales.”

“Let’s watch this one, then.”

Everyone else just nodded, with Roman putting the movie in. Anxiety hated how awkward this all was. It was kicking his anxiety into high drive.

The movie night turned into a movie marathon, with others picking movies as well, and Roman exclaiming that he wanted to see how many they could get through before everyone fell asleep.

The answer was 7, because it was two in the morning by the time Patton and Anxiety finally fell asleep in the Commons.

They were awoken by a screech in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on tumblr: esperinkdraws

**Author's Note:**

> i may or may not continue this, i'm not totally sure.
> 
> come yell at me on tumblr: esperinkdraws


End file.
